


Machinations

by archer_nebulae



Category: Bionicle - All Media Types
Genre: Body Horror, Discovery, Drowning, Kestora - Freeform, Other, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Red Star - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-23
Updated: 2019-01-23
Packaged: 2019-10-01 22:00:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,268
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17252156
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/archer_nebulae/pseuds/archer_nebulae
Summary: WIP - Posting so I don't lose the tags/summary/etc. On haitus.We begin where Pohatu and Kopaka were left - abandoned by Gaardus on the Red Star. Surrounded by Kestora, and saved by a strange Matoran calling himself Mavrah.The duo soon find that there's more to the Red Star than they thought, and much more than they wanted.(Fore-warning of the Major Character Death in the End-Notes).





	Machinations

“Who are you?” asked Pohatu. “What are you doing here?”

“As far as the second question goes, I presume the same thing you are,” said the Matoran. “As for who I am – my name is Mavrah.”

“The same thing we are?” Kopaka echoed. This ‘Mavrah’ was almost as bad as the Kestora - giving unclear answers to perfectly clear questions.

Pohatu shifted his weight, and said, “But aren’t you dead?”

Mavrah studied the Toa Nuva, and spoke: “Well, aren’t _you_?”

Pohatu recoiled and glanced at Kopaka. When neither Toa spoke, Mavrah nodded to himself, as if that had resolved the issue.

Kopaka almost made a sharp remark, but a fragment of memory stopped him. The Turaga’s tales of their first voyage to the Island of Mata Nui; all their voices murmering, smoke crackling into the sky. How long ago those fireside tales now seemed!

And Kopaka recalled where he’d heard ‘Mavrah’ before. In the flooded cave system beneath the Island of Mata Nui, the Turaga, then Toa Metru, had encountered this Onu-Matoran. Mavrah had been hiding a cavern of ancient rahi for centuries, protecting those creatures, and the Toa Metru were intruders. In the chaos that consumed the cave, Mavrah had been swept into a pool among the frenzied rahi and presumably, had drowned. Or worse, been eaten.

“Most of the ones out there - I call them Ramblers - aren’t terribly clever, and none of them are sane,” Mavrah said. “Not anymore.”

At the mention of their pursuers, Pohatu glanced at the door they had just passed through. Scritch-scratch sounds came from it. There were rustles and scrapes, but nothing to hint that their refuge would be attacked. What had Kopaka seen that disturbed him so? Pohatu resolved to ask again.

“We’ve met people like that,” Pohatu said. “What else is new?”

“You’ve met people who aren’t themselves?”

“Yes.”

“And ones who are more than themselves?”

“I suppose.” Pohatu thought that question rather strange. How could one know if someone else was _more_ than themself? Did Mavrah mean ‘more’ in the sense of something new -- like how Pohatu and his brothers became Toa Nuva due to the Energized Protodermis? Or perhaps the Matoran meant ‘more’ as increased mental acuity?

“How about ones---”

“It’s clear there are many types of people here,” Kopaka interrupted. The continued scratchings against the metalloid wall bothered him. Kopaka strongly desired an exit. In lieu of this, he desired to question this Matoran. “Describe the dangerous ones? Are you threatened by anything, besides the Kestora themselves?”

“Are you insane?” Mavrah said. “Everything is dangerous!” The Matoran gestured wildly. “We get tremors all the time, and the Kestora run around fixing things, and then breaking them to fix them again, so everyone is all very confused and, and frazzled. I have a pet, but he’s dangerous too, my pet, no, he’s a friend--”

Kopaka looked at Mavrah. The Matoran’s speech had trailed off, and he now stared past Kopaka to some point behind the white Toa.

“A friend,” Mavrah echoed himself.

“Mavrah,” Pohatu said. The Toa of Stone gestured at Kopaka, encouraging him to participate. “Mavrah, could we meet your friend?”

The Onu-Matoran’s gaze focused back on Pohatu.Kopaka made his tone gentler. “Your friend is somewhere safe, yes?” And Mavrah nodded. Kopaka continued, “Would you take us there? Then all of us are safe.”

“I could,” Mavrah said. He was hesitating. “Out there’s not safe. Out here’s not safe, but I know a place. And we coud use more friends. This way!” Mavrah said, and turning, gestured to a crevice in the wall behind him. “It’s supposed to be this way.”

Mavrah slipped into the tunnel, and Pohatu stepped toward it next, pulling Kopaka along by their still linked hands. Pohatu did not like the look of that crevice. It was narrow and cramped, barely room for one person, let alone two abreast. If there was an ambush on the other side, the two Toa would have trouble parrying in the tight space. But there were still scratchy-scritching sounds from the passage only a wall and a door away. They couldn’t be picky this time.

“Scout goes first,” Kopaka said, as Pohatu lingered.

Pohatu mock glared at the Ice Toa. “When scout has room to scout, scout goes first. You just like this as little as I.”

“Yes.”

“Alright, then.” Pohatu stepped into the crevice first. As he did, he moved Kopaka’s hand onto one of his shoulders. If the situation became desperate, Pohatu would trigger his Kakama Nuva and, sharing its power, vibrate both Toa through any obstacles or enemies. At the same time, Kopaka would share his Akaku Nuva between them, allowing Pohatu to see all the obstacles far in advance. A tried and true strategy.

“This way,” Mavrah called. His voice echoed from somewhere down the tunnel. Pohatu dodged a pipe, and whack! A bundle of wires hit his mask.

“Where’s he gotten to?” Pohatu asked, shoving the detritus aside.

A whiring sound. Then: “Take the next left.”

Pohatu did. Some time passed, about fifteen units or so. Then around a corner, there was a light Pohatu could percieve, even without the Akaku’s assistance. They stepped through, and found Mavrah waiting for them. Even further into the room, was another being.

This being had gold armor, and was lean. Too lean, for the size of them; easily three times the height of a Toa. There was barely any organic aspects to their frame, and Pohatu couldn’t tell if this was the natural state of this being, or not. They sat in a meditative position familiar to any Toa. Yet this image was offputting - the angles of their limbs, and joints, the proportions couldn’t be right, but some how were.

“This is my friend,” said Mavrah. “Come closer.”

Mavrah led them a few steps further in, and Pohatu estimated they were in range of the being’s long, long arms.

 

#

 

KP think Red Star is only for assisting in escape velocity for GSR. “...not a true star, but an engine”

\-- All deaths in and around GSR --- biomechs are still teleported, but are trapped inside the computer/recorder sort of. I think this, cause no one recognized that there was an issue--- they expect mechs to just disolve/ fade away over time.

So, bio mechs’ spirits are saved in computer -- a backlog of names and names that have yet to materialize and be put into bodies on the Red Star. Matoro, others, Lewa. And can take new form on the Red Star. So teleport of spirits out of GSR still works. WHAT DOESN’T is the process of getting those spirits into new bodies. AND getting the repaired spirits/ bodies teleported back to GSR.

#

Mavrah was staring at him. Pohatu caught the gaze from the corner of his eye, and stared back. “Do you, need anything?” He asked, and set the wiring bundle on top of his chest armor.

“That’s what you said. You’re his friend.”

“I’m friends with everybody,” said Pohatu. He tried to make his voice jovial, and not reveal how unnerved he felt. Mavrah was just staring through him, not meeting Pohatu’s eyes. Pohatu slowly sat upright, leaned toward Mavrah, and continued, “Ask Kopaka - he was the first one - hard to believe as that is.”

“You’re his friend, and he might have been killed. I’d forgotten. ‘Doesn’t that mean anything to you’, you said. Doesn’t that mean. Doesn’t that mean anything, mean any thing.”

“Mavrah, you okay there?”

“Drowned. I drowned. Meaning anything with my friends.”

“Mavrah, you’re not drowning,” Pohatu said. He realized that the Onu-Matoran wasn’t actually seeing Pohatu --  the Toa Nuva of Stone. Mavrah saw the underwater cavern instead. “Maybe you did, but you’re not now. Neither of us have an elemental connection to metal, but you’re touching it.”

Pohatu shifted and, using his hands, he started knocking on the metal floor, making a beat and scratching sounds.

“Hear that?” Pohatu said. “Mavrah, hear that? You’re on metal, not water. You can’t drown on metal, so you’re not drowning.” Of course, that wasn’t strictly true. Any water toa could make such a death possible, but Mavrah didn’t need to know that.

Mavrah didn’t respond, but his gaze shifted toward Pohatu’s hands. For the next several minutes, Pohatu kept making noise against the metal floor. Pohatu could fish someone out of water and save them in an instant with his Mask of Speed. He didn’t know how to save Mavrah from his own memories -- and of his own death.

 

  * Mavrah, rough weld lines on armour. mind not all there - sometimes talk to self? as if back in cave with ancient sea rahi -- mind left in place where he died.
  * Kestora, limited AI, no empathy/sympathy for others, only focused on not being able to send biomechs back to GSR. Believe problem lies in the beings they repaired -- something in them prevents them from going back.
    * when they “see” they see that a biomech is fully/mostly repaired, and can tell that K and P should ‘be gone by now’
    * they think K and P had arrived and been repaired by some other Kestora, and so ‘got what they came for’ and now need to leave.
    * however, these Kestora want to dissect K and P anyway, because **it** must be working again, otherwise how did K and P arrive in first place? So their logic is to dissect new arrival to see how different from repaired ones on RS.
  * teleportation to and from RS is supposed to be automatic…. the RS system is supposed to moniter its internals, and register when non-Kestora entities are fully repaired and then automatically teleport them back to GSR.
  * teleporter away broke first - Gaardus was last to leave
  * teleporter in broke next - and Mavrah was one of the last to arrive



 

Pohatu figured they were doing not too bad. They were still stuck on a broken floating machine in space, filled with dead and half-dead biomechs. They still didn't really know why Lesovikk seemingly murdered Karzahni and Tren Krom, or what he further planned, let alone relay that to the other Toa Nuva. They still didn't even have a way to contact their siblings and, by Pohatu's estimate, had been on the Red Star about three weeks. But the Toa of Stone and his stone-faced brother were stuck together, and they were fixing it up not too bad.

Kopaka had finally gotten the Kestora to back off them and Mavrah a couple days ago, though all three still spent sleep-hours behind a locked-from-the-inside door.

Spare parts were being organized by the half-dead that could sort of function. The Kestora were running a census of everyone; Kopaka had been logical at them. And they possibly even had the incoming teleporter working again!

The tentative plan was to target the teleporter to pick up needed supplies for fully and actually repairing all the biomechs here. The Kestora were a little strange, but when they had the right parts they were competent. Apparently.

Pohatu felt he and Kopaka were almost like some of the Makuta - but in a good way! The way the Makuta originally were, planning things and making things happen. Pohatu had tried to explain this to Kopaka, but the Toa of Ice hadn't been in a receptive mood.

"Well, you're masterminding this huge reconstruction of this thing we know zero about, and it could, and probably will, blow up in our masks really bad," Pohatu had elaborated. He knew he was digging himself a deeper canyon, but he couldn't help it. "And we barrelled on here and caused a ruckus. Usually us Toa get here when the problems have already started, not that we start them."

"But we didn't start this problem," Kopaka had said. "The red star was already broken and we're fixing it. Or trying to," he added pointedly.

"But when we got here, we caused havoc first before starting the fixing - we weren't able to start fixing right away."

"The Makuta operated with different ideals," Kopaka finally said. "Even ages ago when their goals were just. We making a disturbance in an already disturbed system is not comparable to the historical degradation of a once-protection-oriented organization." Then Kopaka used his typical method to end a conversation - walking away.

Pohatu sighed, but didn't pursue the subject. It wasn't a switch of ideals or even roles, really. Obviously, the Toa have always been motivated toward justice, protection, the three virtues, using methods that reflect that. But in the context now, of what and how things are happening? It all seems different. Maybe that was it. Lewa would've gotten it; he was all about how sometimes a being landed in an unexpected place.

As Pohatu pondered, he walked toward his current task - continuing to slowly reconstruct the transporter, based on the repair tablets that had been here all this time. Back in Po-Metru, when there was still a Metru Nui, Onewa had been teaching Pohatu some Po-Matoran mechanics. For the most part, Pohatu enjoyed it. Learning about layering circuits was almost like studying rock layers, especially sedimentary ones.

It did bemuse him when Onewa talled about Po-Matoran history, Po-Matoran style, Po-Matoran values. Having never been a Matoran, never having a community or culture like that, Pohatu felt a little unbalanced. Pohatu had really only had his siblings (even when none of them wanted each other) and the three virtues - all important things.

But talking about these Po-Matoran things, explaining them, was very important to Onewa. Pohatu cared deeply about the Turaga, and had a curious heart-light, so he listened and asked and learned about how it once was.

#

**Author's Note:**

> \- **Major Character Death** : Lewa, technically. He dies on Spherus Magna, in conflict defending Agori villagers. We don't see him die directly, though he will relate what he recalls of the event to Pohatu and Kopaka - this may be graphic. Lewa is still a **key** and **active** character in the story. 
> 
> \- **PTSD** : Mavrah has a scene where he experiences a hallucination/ re-experience of trauma of death. Pohatu is present, and tries to talk him out of it. Very possibly triggering, especially regarding drowning. 
> 
> \- First two lines of dialogue are a direct quote from _The Powers That Be_ (2011), an online story ([found here](https://biosector01.com/wiki/The_Powers_That_Be) at BS01) and the basis for this fic.


End file.
